Woman held over Lagos robberies, kidnappings

A WOMAN the police claim to be the brain behind most robberies, kidnappings and assassinations in Lagos has been uncovered by the Police Command.

Ngozi Onowu, is being interrogated at Area ‘E’, Command, FESTAC Town, on Lagos-Badagry Expresseway.

According to the police, a vehicle belonging to the suspect was used for robbery at Itire, Lagos Mainland where two policemen were killed.

She also sponsored the abduction and killing of businessman Oddi Nweze and other prominent people in FESTAC, Ikoyi, Surulere, Amuwo-Odofin, Apapa, and Ago Palace Way, all in Lagos.

Police sources at Area ‘E’ Command told our reporter that besides arranging hotel accommodation for a gang being led by her younger brother, she allegedly registered SIM cards with mobile communications network providers’, using fake names and wrong addresses.

The source said: “It’s with these SIM cards that they use to communicate with their victims before their abductions and assasinations. If they are not hired to kill their victims, they will use the SIM cards to communicate with their relations and family members for ransom. The moment ransom is picked, the SIM cards are destroyed.” The source lamented that efforts by investigating officers to unmask the owners of the SIM cards used by members of the gang have not been fruitful

“We hit a brick wall as all information provided by the person who registered the SIM card will be discovered to be false”.

The two kidnap kingpins who were declared wanted by the Lagos Police Commissioner Umar Manko, for their alleged involvement in the killing of Nweze have turned out be younger brother and cousin to the accused.

“She was the one that arranged their escape. Chibuzor Onowu and Kingsley Okwudili led the gang that killed the businessman. It was Ngozi that helped them to escape out of the country,” the source said.

A senior police officer attached to the Area Command noted that after the suspects who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the killing of Nweze were paraded at the Lagos Command headquarters on October 2, investigators decided to further interrogate them.

The Area Commander, Mr. Dan Okoro, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), had called for all the case files that had to do with the suspects in all the Division within the command.

The source said: “When our commander finished studying the files, it was discovered that Ngozi’s name was prominent.

“She was the person that took the armed robbers on bail and was also going around police stations to say that her car was snatched by robbers at gunpoint anytime a vehicle was abandoned by her gang during exchange of fire with the police while operating.

“There was this case were two policemen were killed by members of her gang at Itire. The gang had earlier snatched a vehicle from somebody in Surulere.

“They however abandoned the vehicle after they were overpowered by the police and fled through the bushes. The gang found their way back to Ngozi’s house, told her what happened and she promised them that she will recover the vehicle, a Peugeot 607 with registration number CL921RBC.

“She went to Agboju Police Station and reported that the car was snatched from her at gunpoint at Second Rainbow Bus Stop on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. She even went to the police station with her elder sister’s baby, claiming to be a nursing mother.

“The policemen at the station were convinced with her claims and was trying to help her to recover the vehicle, but unknown to them it was her gang that snatched the vehicle from one Ogugua .C. Peter of 23 Brown Road, Aguda.

“When police investigating officers discovered that the vehicle had been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), they directed her to go and pick it from there but her brothers advised her not to go as she would be placed under serious interrogation which may lead to her confessing.

“That was how she abandoned the vehicle. Their intention was to recover the vehicle and sell it in neighbouring countries.”

It was learnt from the suspect’s confessional statement that members of her gang resorted to kidnapping and assassination when they discovered that armed robbery was becoming more risky and dangerous.

“She confessed that they abandoned armed robbery for kidnap and hired assassination because it was more lucrative and less risk involved. She confessed that they have kidnapped that over 20 persons have been abducted since they changed business last two years and have also killed so many other that they were hired to kill”, the police said.

In a chat with The Nation, Onowu admitted to have been involved in most criminal operations in the state, saying that her brothers may have charmed her into doing their bidding.

She claimed not to know initially that her brothers were into crime until the day she saw them with AK47 guns and other assault rifles in a hotel room she arranged for them.

Onowu said: “I do not understand what has been happening to me. I did not want them to kill me and that was why I refused to go to the police. I can help policemen find them. Okwudili used to have a chemist store in either Taraba or Adamawa. It was when we met again here in Lagos that we decided to form a gang.”

Okoro, who is currently in Ghana where he is being conferred with the award of the Best Police Area Commander in Nigeria by Security Watch Africa, confirmed that the suspect was still being held.

According to him, the suspect is assisting them in tracking other members of her dreaded gang.